PE investments in 2018 crosses $33-B to set new all-time high in India

NEW DELHI: Private Equity (PE)investments in Indiarose to their highest ever figure of US$ 33.1 billion in 2018 (across 720 transactions), according to data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations.

The year witnessed 81 PE investments worth $100 million or more (accounting for 77% of the total investment value during the period),compared to 47 such transactions in 2017. Of these, 40 were larger than $200 million each (by themselves accounting for 60% of the total value) – compared to 30such investments in the year ago period, the Venture Intelligence data shows.

Largest PE Investments–2018

Company

Investors

Amount

Toll Road Projects

Macquarie

$1,487 M

UPL

TPG, ADIA

$1,200 M

HDFC

KKR, GIC, Others

$1,062 M

Swiggy

Naspers, Tencent, Others

$1,000 M

Oyo

SoftBank, Others

$1,000 M

RCOM Enterprise Bix

I-Squared Capital

$1,000 M

Vivtera

Warburg Pincus

$1,000 M

Star Health Insurance

WestBridge,Madison India, Rare Enterprises, Others

$1,000 M*

*Publicly-reported value

By Industry

Led by the $1 Billion investments in Swiggy (from South Africa-based Naspers and others) and Oyo(led by SoftBank), IT & ITeS companies accounted for 32% of the PE investment pie in 2018 (attracting $10.6 Billion across 383 deals).

Food delivery app maker Swiggy had started the year with a $100 million investment led by Naspers, followed it up with mid-year $210 million raise (co-led by Naspers and DST Global) and polished the year off with a $1 Billion investment (led by Naspers and Tencent).

Hotel chainOyo raised $800 million (with an additional commitment for $200 million) led by SoftBank Vision Fund.Paytm raised $445 million (from SoftBank and Alibaba for its E-commerce business, Paytm Mall) and $356 million from Berkshire Hathaway at the parent company (One 97 Communications) level.

Other large ticket IT & ITeS investments in2018included the $300 million attracted by online payment gateway serviceBillDesk from Temasek and others; the $236 million raise by online insurance broker PolicyBazaar (led by SoftBank) and the $410 million (across two rounds) raised by Swiggy competitor Zomato.

Other notable Indian tech companies that attracted rounds of US$100 million or more during the year included payments enablerPine Labs, event ticketing service Bookmyshow, regional language social app ShareChat, music service Gaana.com and fantasy gaming startup Dream11.

The year saw 8 new Unicorn companies being minted,including five – Oyo, PolicyBazaar, Swiggy, Paytm Mall and Byjus– in the B2C segment.

Financials Services companies, led by the HDFC and Star Health Insurance, attracted 72 investments worth $5.9Billion and included 17 deals of $100 million or more.

The two Registrar and Transfer Agent business investments,which hadfacedregulatory hurdles in 2017 – the Karvy–General Atlantic deal and the CAMS–Warburg Pincus one– were green signalled in the second half of 2018.

“The mid-year Walmart-Flipkart deal clearly re-energizedinternational investors’appetite for mega bets in Indian Internet & Mobile companies. This has helped offset the slowdown in investments in sectors like Financial Services, Manufacturing and Infrastructure towards the year end triggered by nervousness in the public markets and the IL&FS scare,” remarked Arun Natarajan, Founder of Venture Intelligence. “Whether the PE investment tally of 2019 can outdo the highs of 2018 seems set to hinge substantially on Global Economic trends in the New Year and the outcome of the upcoming National Elections,” he added.

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